The Frippery of a Rounded Education

Chris Woodhead, the former head of the schools inspectorate in England and Wales, argues that many private schools are, to all intents and purposes, ripping off their clients. The Telegraph observes that he has an interest to declare, but:

Prof Woodhead is the chairman of Cognita, which owns a chain of profitmaking private schools and has purchased four charitable schools.

He said running schools as businesses reduced “waste” – such as luxurious sporting facilities and theatres – as fees were kept low to attract parents. “We are absolutely rigorous in not providing frills and frippery, but concentrating on what seems to us to matter most, namely the quality of teaching. I am deeply shocked by the degree of waste within the independent sector. I don’t think that the fees do need to go up in the way that they do go up all the time and I think that many independent schools are locked into a competition to provide ever more five-star facilities which actually have no education benefit at all.”